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Tim Linden

Do you even need hosting?

I was asked this in an email recently and I felt it would be a great blog post. The training steps in CTP don’t talk about hosting, although we’ve discussed doing so. So the question was, do you even need it?

Yes. Well, no. I mean yes?

Here’s the deal: Hosting will give you lots of benefits, but it’s not required to make money online. So it’s one of those how serious do you want to be type of things. Do you want to make an OK amount, or do you want to make the most you possibly can?

Benefits of Hosting:

You can give people your own URL. It’s almost like “proof” you are really committed. If you say my site is myname.com for instance, people know they can go back there anytime to see what’s going on.

You can start a blog. I’m soo 100% on blogs. I get tons of free traffic from search engines because of my blog. It’s like a free bonus that keeps coming back. Some will argue that the traffic doesn’t increase profits, but I argue it’s free traffic for doing nothing but posting to a blog vs posting to an email list. Why wouldn’t you?

You can have custom splash pages. With AdKreator you are limited in how much you can do. I love AdKreator, but if you hire someone to make a design for you most likely it won’t be able to just be stuck onto an AdKreator splash. So by having hosting you’re allowing yourself the ability to go crazy.

So why wouldn’t you host?

The cost. This is usually the first reason to not jump into hosting. If you are limited on budget there are better things you can be doing right now. Like building a list. You can have the best blog in the world, but if nobody knows when you post something new, have fun with that content nobody sees!

The learning curve would be next. Just because you have hosting, doesn’t mean you will be able to make fabulous splash pages or get the blog setup. If you aren’t there, don’t sweat it.

So what do you do? I would focus on list building and tracking. You can be an affiliate marketer without owning a website, ever. Once you are on top of your game and feel you know how to do it effectively, then you should start hosting and go from there. Don’t try to do too much too fast or you’ll get burnt out, confused, and frustrated!

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4 comments for “Do you even need hosting?”

Paul Coonan

July 11, 2013 at 10:29 am

There are so many variables! If one is to simply be just a marketer vs a site/program owner, with limited capabilities, hosting is not required. Mind you, there are in fact many people that make a living by being nothing but a ‘affiliate marketer.’

Early on in my career, I did expand from being just an affiliate marketer to buying my first domain and purchased hosting so I could differentiate myself from others, ‘branding,’

Which now leads us to those who want to be or are site/program owners. Most start with ‘shared hosting’ which is a perfect, cost effective way to start. Then the question comes of whether to put out the cash for a dedicated server which usually costs at least 10 times more, even 20 times more. That is a big threshold but also psychologically limiting!

Tim, you mentioned dedication. If a person decides to go dedicated with their site, most visitors to that site would never know the difference, if that site was on a dedicated server or a $5/mth shared host. However, when I found myself at this juncture of whether I should upgrade to a dedicated host from shared hosting, it felt like a gamble because the costs were so different.

I knew at one point I needed to go dedicated to get where I wanted to be, but the income did not justify the move yet. But in this quandary, I realized something that is backwards from what many people think. I made the move to a dedicated server from shared and it forced me to ‘make it happen.’ I pushed myself over the edge and forced myself to become ‘completely dedicated to my vision’ a bit like someone pushing someone into a pool that can’t swim and that person is forced to learn to swim really fast.

I don’t recommend doing what I did to just anyone, unless one understands the true risks involved in making the jump from shared hosting to a dedicated server and spending 10 to 20 times as much, and one can spend even more than that, 40 and 50 times as much! Yes, it can certainly create the self-motivation and determination that can quickly create an empire, but one can also lose their butt if it does not work out!

Now I managed a network of 4 dedicated servers.

Bottom line, for me anyway, I found fear is/was the biggest block. Fear is the biggest thing that holds any person back from achieving true success in internet marketing. Get passed the fear and oh what a world it opens up!

Thanks Tim, I am glad my question has provoked an blog post. I sure helped me out a lot. I really did have a misconception on domains/hosting. This really helped clarify things a lot for me. I hope it does for others as well. Shelayne

Thanks Tim for this post. I agree with you 100%. There’s a lot of talk about branding yourself online, and having your own domain and hosting account is the best way to create your brand, As you mention people can always bookmark, and come back to your site.

Anyone who thinks about affiliate marketing should have there own hosting to avoid setting up your prospects for someone else lol. I will stop there. Not to mention with so many here to day gone tomorrow offers, by that I mean the website is shut down, you would be better of filtering you prospects through your own account first, that is if you are here to run a business, not to win the marketing lottery!

Great to point that out Tim! I would definitely consider hosting optional to get started online. Do I ultimately suggest it? Of course!

As mentioned, it will also take a functional understanding of websites in order to begin to profit from it.

I started out quite modestly myself (now with a list of 35k+ or so), and if there’s anything I wish more people knew, it is that you can still make plenty of profits with a focus on list building and affiliate marketing.

If you’re going to start a website, make sure you have a purpose in mind so it’s not going to waste, whether it is for a blog, squeeze pages, or something more advanced.